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How do you judge the appearance of the wine?
The appearance of a wine can say a lot about its grape variety and origin, its maturity and its condition. When assessing the appearance of a wine, attention is paid to clarity, depth of colour, hue and viscosity.
Clarity
To judge the clarity of a wine, hold the glass up to a light source or a bright, white surface. The spectrum ranges from crystal clear to clean and matt to cloudy.
A permanent, uniform cloudiness (to be distinguished from sediment that settles over time) is always a sign of poor quality or over-ripeness.
Colour depth
To assess the depth of colour and also the hue of a wine, hold it at an angle against a white surface. With both white and red wines, an intense, dense colour can indicate a lot of substance and extract. These two factors usually result from the reduction in yield and are quality criteria for the wine.
However, the depth of colour also depends largely on the grape variety: In red wines, for example, a Trollinger or a Pinot Noir naturally has significantly less colour intensity than a Cabernet Sauvignon or Dornfelder. Not every "lighter-coloured" wine is therefore inferior - and not every darker-coloured wine is automatically of high quality.
With increasing maturity, the depth of colour tends to increase in white wines and decrease in red wines. Oxidation increases the depth of colour in both cases.
Colour tone
The colour tone can be assessed using the following - exemplary - scales:
White wine | Red wine |
- Lemon yellow | - Cherry red |
- Greyish yellow | - Purple red |
- Greenish yellow | - Ruby red |
- Golden yellow | - Garnet red |
- Amber gold | - Brick red |
- Yellow-brown | - Copper red |
The colour is particularly indicative of the maturity of the wine. The colour at the edge of the glass is particularly interesting. The following basic statements can be made:
- The darker the colour of a white wine, the older it usually is and/or the riper the grapes from which it was made. Accordingly, amber and gold tones are found in mature and noble sweet white wines (keyword: botrytis).
- In red wine, copper and brown tones at the edge of the glass are an indication of incipient maturity. In the centre of the glass, they indicate over-ripeness. A brown-coloured wine is certainly already dead.
- Purple, on the other hand, is a sign that a red wine is young, especially with certain grape varieties (e.g. Gamay or Portugieser).
Viscosity
Viscosity is best recognised by first swirling the glass and then holding it against a white surface. Drops then begin to run down from the edge that the liquid has left on the inside wall of the glass, forming "stained glass windows". The later this drop formation begins and the slower the drops run down, the higher the viscosity and therefore the extract and quality of the wine.